


Photos and Memories

by marylou



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-14 18:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8023885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marylou/pseuds/marylou
Summary: It is the end of Harry's first year at Hogwarts, and Hagrid comes to Severus with a personal request.





	1. Chapter 1

Snape strode angrily towards the castle, his cloak billowing out behind him. Potter had broken so many rules in going after the stone, and now the headmaster wasn’t going to do anything about it! Well, at least it wouldn’t be his fault when it became obvious that Potter was an arrogant attention seeker just like his father. He’d tried his best to keep the Potter brat humble, and now Dumbledore was going to just walk all over his progress! His eyes narrowed as he approached Hagrid on the path. He was one of the worst Potter supporters.

“Professor, sir,” Hagrid spoke up, moving to walk next to Snape. “I was wonderin’ if, well, Harry doesn’ have anything of his parents because of those blasted muggles, an’ I’ve been writin’ to some o’ James and Lily’s friends from school, an’ I was wonderin’ if maybe yeh could give me some o’ yer pictures of Lily from when she was younger, back when yeh were in school.”

Snape slowed his pace, turning to Hagrid. “I will consider it. But don’t get your hopes up,” he snapped.

“It’s just that,” Hagrid sniffled, “He was jus’ so brave, little Harry, fightin’ against You-Know-Who again, and I don’ think the muggles ever told him anythin’ about his parents, and, well, no one was closer to Lily than yeh were-“

“Hagrid, I said I would consider it, now please let me be!” Snape interrupted, snapping at him.

Later that evening, Snape was sitting at his desk, glaring at the stack of student essays that he had just finished going through. “Stupid Potter,” he mumbled under his breath. “Thinks the whole world revolves around him.” He gave a final glare at the papers and stood, pushing his chair back. He stalked over to a shelf on the back wall and bent down to pull a cardboard box out from the bottom shelf. He walked back to his desk and set the box down, continuing to glare at it. With a sigh, he opened the top, lifting up a stack of papers. He sifted through them despondently, sometimes with a look of rage on his face and sometimes even wiping away a lone tear from his eye. About halfway through the box, he drew out an envelope. He opened it and pulled out a stack of photos. He stared at the one on the top for a moment before coming to a decision and pulling out his wand and waving it over the stack, muttering a few words under his breath. Then he reached over to a drawer and opened it, pulling out an envelope and sliding the photos inside.

“Even though he is a brat with no skills to speak of other than a lack of common sense, he at least deserves these,” he muttered under his breath.

. . .

A few days later, in the hospital wing besides Harry’s bed after he had woken, Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said, “That reminds me. I’ve got yeh a present.”

“It’s not a stoat sandwich, it it? Said Harry anxiously, and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle.

“Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. ‘Course, he shoulda sacked me instead- anyway, got yeh this . . .”

It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.

“Sent owls off ter all yer parents’ old school friends, askin’ for photos . . . knew yeh didn’t have any . . . d’yeh like it?”

Harry couldn’t speak, but Hagrid understood.

. . .

Later that evening, Harry was flipping through his new picture album when he came across some pictures of a young Lily Evans. She was smiling and laughing with someone, but Harry couldn’t tell who it was. He could tell that there was someone there, but for some reason the face and any other distinguishing marks were blurred out. He lifted the book closer to his face, but with no luck. He still couldn’t see their face.

The next morning, Harry went down to Hagrid’s hut to find out more about where the picture had come from. But when he asked Hagrid, the only answer he got was, “They don’t want yeh t’ know who they are. Had a fallin’ out with yer mum, they did, coupla years back. An’ don’t ask me again, tha’s all I can tell yeh, an’ don’ try and find out who they are yerself, they didn’ have to give yeh those pictures, but they did anyway an’ yeh should respect their privacy.”

Harry didn’t respond, choosing instead to stare at his mum’s face in one of the pictures, reaching out to touch it with the tip of his finger. She was looking up at the mysterious person with a bright smile on her face.

“Well then, please tell them I appreciate it and I’m going to respect their wish to remain unknown.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Shhhh,” Harry soothed, rocking baby James gently, the light from his lit wand bathing them in a warm glow. He had just started teething and was having trouble sleeping. Unfortunately, it was Harry’s turn to get up with him.

Harry winced as James sobbed softly. “C’mon, James, we don’t want to wake up mum, now do we.” James didn’t seem to care.

“What if we read a book together? You like reading books, don’t you James?” Harry asked quietly. He stood carefully, his hand on James’ back as he walked softly over to the bookshelf in the corner of the room. “What about Babbity Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump? You like that one. Or Goodnight Moon?” James whimpered, turning his face to wipe his nose on Harry’s shirt. “No? What about . . .” Harry trailed off as he noticed the photo album that Hagrid had given him so long ago. “What about this?” He said softly. “Hagrid gave this to me years ago. Remember Hagrid? He gave you that toy blast-ended skrewt when you were born.” He grabbed the album, moving back to his chair.

“This has pictures of your grandparents in it. Not grandmum Molly and granddad Arthur, my parents, Lily and James. You were named after James, did you know that?”

James gurgled.

“Hagrid gave me this when I told him that I didn’t have any pictures of my parents. He said that he asked all of my parents old school friends for any pictures that they had.”

Harry sank back into the chair with a sigh. He shifted little James forward in his lap, putting the album in front of him and opening it. He smiled. “Look here,” he pointed at the picture. “This is my parents’ wedding. That’s my mum and dad, and this here is Sirius. He was my godfather. And right there next to him is Remus.”

James reached out to try and touch the picture, smearing drool on it. Harry laughed. “That’s right, you recognize him, don’t you. That’s Teddy’s daddy.” Harry wiped the drool up with his sleeve and turned the page. “And this is when my parents graduated from Hogwarts. They look so happy. . .” he trailed off, pain entering his eyes for a moment before he moved on and turned the page. 

They went on for a few minutes like that, Harry describing the pictures to James and James responding with a whimper or drool-covered hand until Harry paused, about to turn the next page.

“Now, the next couple pictures are sort of a secret. Can you keep a secret, James?” He reached up and brushed James’ hair back from his face. “I don’t know who the pictures are from. I know that seems weird, that I would have pictures in here that I don’t know anything about, but whoever sent them to Hagrid didn’t want me to know who they were. These are pictures from when my mum was a little girl. There’s one of her friends in most of the pictures with her, but I can’t tell who they are; they’ve been blurred out of the picture. I’ve always thought that they were the one who gave me the pictures, but I have no idea who they are.” He frowned for a moment. There was something in his mind that stuck out about what he had just said, something that he felt he should remember, but it was late, he was tired, and the memory escaped him and he turned the page.

“See, here this is my mum and this is her friend. I don’t know-” Harry broke off as he looked at the picture. “I- but that doesn’t make sense. How did I not notice that?” he asked himself in shock. There, in the picture standing next to Lily Evans, was a young Severus Snape.

Harry reached out and brushed his finger over the photo in shock. “I- I guess that makes sense.” he whispered. “I mean, I know that he was friends with my mum, but I never really connected it to this.” He turned the page and smiled. There, right in the middle of the page, was his mum and Snape on Halloween. They were dressed as a witch and wizard, and while Lily looked to be having the time of her life, Snape looked as if he was trying to escape the picture. Harry laughed. “I can see why he didn’t want anyone to see these,” he muttered.

“Harry?” He turned around. “Ginny? What are you doing up?”

She groaned, reaching up to rub at her eyes. “I woke up and you weren’t there. Was James fussing?”

Harry nodded. 

“What are you looking at?” she asked.

“Remember that photo album that Hagrid gave me when I was in the hospital wing?”

“Yes, I remember it. Is that what that is?”

He nodded. “But do you remember those pictures of my mum before she came to Hogwarts, the ones that I didn’t know who sent them to Hagrid.”

“What about them?”

“It was Snape.”

She blinked in surprise. “Really? Snape? Why do you say that?”

He beckoned her over. “The picture have cleared up. It is definitely Snape.”

She leaned over his shoulder and peered at the picture. She chuckled. “Be sure that George doesn’t see that picture.”

He smiled. “Sometimes I wish I had had a chance to talk to him.”

“Snape?”

“Yeah. I think maybe if he could have gotten over the fact that I was a Potter, we could have gotten along better. After all, he was the only real link I ever had to my mum, and I never had a chance to talk to him about her.”

He leaned back in his chair and pulled James closer to him. “Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if my mum had forgiven him. What I even have been a Potter.”

“There’s really no way of knowing,” Ginny said, reaching out to close the book. “James has gone back to sleep, why don’t we do the same. Come on.”

Harry stood up, cradling James’ sleeping body closer to him as he put the album back on the bookshelf. He smiled at Ginny, reaching over to put his arm around her as they went back to bed. He may not have known his parents, but he had made his own family. All was well.


End file.
